Security Levels

RM1/c Benjamin A. Bottoms, USCG

Official Biography:

Benjamin Autrell Bottoms was born on 1 November 1913 at Cumming, Georgia. He
grew up in farm country near Marietta, Georgia where he graduated from
Marietta High School in 1931.

Bottoms enlisted in the US Coast Guard on 13 October 1932, and took his boot
training at the Receiving Unit, New London, Connecticut. During 1933 he
served with the Destroyer Force that the Coast Guard operated in the "Rum
War" of the Prohibition era. The destroyers to which he was assigned were
Herndon, which operated out of Boston, Massachusetts, and
Conyngham, based at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In December 1933 he was transferred to the Communications Division at the
Coast Guard Depot (Yard), Curtis Bay, Maryland, where he became interested
in radio operating. From June 1934 to October 1935, he was assigned
alternately to CGCs Ossipee and Guthrie, both stationed at
Portland, Maine. Following further instruction at Fort Trumbull Training
Station, New London, Connecticut, he served as Radioman, Third Class in the
cutters Thetis, Ossipee again, and Harriet Lane
out of ports along the Massachusetts coast.

From June 1937 to October 1938, he was attached to Carrabasset at Curtis
Bay, following which he returned to Harriet Lane at Gloucester,
Massachusetts. While assigned to Gloucester, Bottoms married Olga Bernice
Rogers on 10 October 1937. After a brief period of training with the Boston
Division, he was assigned to the Coast Guard Air Station at Salem,
Massachusetts, in October 1939. During the period June to November of 1941
he was stationed temporarily on board Northland as preparations
were being made for the cutter to take on an aircraft. He then returned to
the Salem Air Station for a brief time.

Early in 1942 he rejoined Northland to serve as Radioman, First
Class of the J2F-4 Grumman amphibious plane that the vessel carried on the
Greenland Patrol. Before long Bottoms would die a hero while on a dangerous
rescue mission in that plane.

On 28 November 1942 as Northland drifted in Comanche Bay, a radio
message notified the commanding officer that the position of the U.S. Army
B-17 “Flying Fortress” that had crashed into the ice cap near the west coast
of Greenland had been ascertained.

As the radioman, Bottoms would
accompany the pilot, Lt. John A. Pritchard, of the cutter’s plane on the
hazardous rescue flight. Though no one ever before had successfully landed a
plane on the ice cap, the two men were confident that the rescue could be
accomplished.

At 1020, 28 November, the Grumman J2F-4 (USCG No. 1640) was lowered over the
side of Northland into the water and took off to rescue the Army
air crew. Bottoms was at the radio while LT Pritchard piloted the plane.
Picking up weak radio signals from the bomber, Bottoms was able to give the
pilot accurate bearings on the wrecked B-17. After flying for about 30
minutes over the desolate wasteland, the pilot sighted the wreck, circled
over the Army airmen, dropped a package of medicine, and signaled he was
going to land. Regardless of the warning signals not to try to land with
wheels down, the pilot set the plane down on the 2,000-ft. high ice cap. The
wheels of the plane sank into the snow up to the pontoons.

Since the pilot could not get closer than within four miles of the wreck,
Pritchard undertook the hazardous journey alone on foot while Bottoms kept
contact with the ship to notify the skipper of their operations. After
reaching the wrecked B-17, the pilot informed the Army fliers that his plane
could only carry two of them at a time. Two injured men who could walk with
some assistance were selected. With the aid of a third Army airman, the
pilot brought the injured men back to his plane. Bottoms helped LT Pritchard
and the third Army airman turn the plane around for a takeoff. Remembering
the difficulty of landing with wheels down, LT Pritchard decided to take off
from the ice using the plane’s pontoons. The wheels were forced up and LT
Pritchard, with Bottoms and the two injured airmen, took off in the late
afternoon. After careening, sliding, and bumping over the ice hummocks, the
plane soared safely into the air and back to Northland.

The following day, 29 November, LT Pritchard and Bottoms resumed rescue
operations for the remaining U.S. Army airmen. As on the previous day they
reached the stranded fliers, took one on board and after a successful
take-off started for the cutter. Soon after the plane encountered a heavy
snow storm and crashed on the ice cap. Bottoms’ last radio message to the
ship was that they had a successful takeoff and that he needed weather
reports. After the storm subsided, search parties from a nearby U.S. Army
base and from the ship were organized to search for the lost aircraft.
Though reporting an incorrect location, a bomber sighted and identified the
plane. The report noted that the wings were off, but the fuselage was
intact. Unfortunately, there was no sign of life. One rescue party pushed
over the ice cap to within six miles of the wrecked plane but was unable to
reach it. The bodies of Bottoms, Pritchard, and the injured airman who
survived the earlier crashed B-17 have not been recovered.

Radioman, First Class Bottoms was 29 years old and was declared missing in
action effective 29 November 1942. He was declared presumed dead a year
later on 30 November 1943. Bottoms was survived by his wife, Olga and her
son, Ed Richardson, his father, Andrew Jackson Bottoms and his mother,
Nassie [Nassau] America Bottoms, his twin sister Nancy Janell Bottoms, and a
younger sister, Eleanor Bottoms. For his part in the daring rescues, Bottoms
was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross
posthumously.

According to Bob Bowden, son of Bottoms sister Nancy,
Radioman Bottoms and Nancy were twins. Bottoms was also survived by
his father, Andrew Jackson Bottoms, who lived until the mid-1970s, and a
younger sister, Eleanor.